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User blog:The Milkman/Pacific Rim: The Video Game Review: Better Than Spartacus Legends
I'm a Pacific Rim fanboy. I'll outright admit that. Despite knowing that Pacific Rim: The Video Game is, I was still crazy hyped for it, ever since I first saw footage of it. For me, just having a video game where you can play as a Jaeger beating the stuffing out of a Kaiju is enough for a day-one purchase. Pacific Rim, with its great sense of grandeur, epic fight scenes, and rich universe, makes for a perfect video game. Is Pacific Rim: The Video Game that game? Have you purchased Pacific Rim: The Video Game? Yes, and I like it. Yes, but I regret the purchase. No, but I probably will at some point. No, and I will likely not buy it. First Impressions The first thing you’ll likely notice about Pacific Rim: The Video Game is how low the production values are. Despite being a Warner Bros. Game, none the voices from the movie feature here, not even in the intro, which is exactly the same as Charlie Hunham’s opening monologue. Most of the game’s cutscenes are just static stills with no voiced dialogue to be found anywhere in the game. Personally, I would have settled for the cool robot voice from the movie and trailers. Even the short intro and outro scenes seem half-baked. It’s also a real shame that the epic main theme didn't make it into the game. The soundtrack here isn't anything to write home about, which is a far cry from the fantastic score the movie has. Gameplay Timing is everything in this game, and whilst this is true for most fighting games, it makes mashing every button on the controller randomly an ineffective strategy. For skilled players, fighting games are more about precision and positioning than anything else, but that doesn't mean they can’t have a “pick up and play” aspect to them like Smash Bros. In making a more methodical fighting game, Yuke's loses a lot of that accessibility, and a lot of people not big into fighting games will likely be turned off by the slow pace. That said, the control scheme is extremely simple, with no complex combos or inputs to memorise. It’s something most players with have down pat the first time around. As a quick aside, I was extremely disappointed to discover that there is no taunt button, even though there is room for it on the controller. However, I will commend them for making a fighter in the spirit of the film. The visual nature of the Jaegers is very mechanical and methodical, so this type of gameplay fits the bill perfectly. Jaegers and Kaiju function in slightly different ways. Jaegers have two health bars, and Kaiju have one big one. For Jaegers, each health gauge represents a pilot, and when one meter is lost, that character is handicapped, allowing them to only gain 50% energy (thus preventing them from using their one-hit special attack). Features and Functionality The game comes with two single player modes: normal missions and survival. The missions themselves have very little story, so if you're expecting any kind of coherent plot, it won't be found here. The missions take you through several different scenarios against different types of enemies. However, since there's only two stages, expect to be seeing a lot of the same scenery. This isn't so much an arcade mode as it is a series of challenges, and it gets the job done. Like Tekken Revolution, there's no real versus mode for you to just jump in, pick a stage, and set up a fight. Instead, there's multiplayer, which offers both online and local matches. If you have a few friends that are also fans of the film, you'll probably have a lot of fun pitting your favourite mechas and monsters together. This is basically a high-tech version of taking your favourite toys and bashing them together, and it's awesome. The online has you select one of three factions, none of which are mentioned in the film itself. Players can choose the Guardian Corporation, a government funded faction, Talonfist, a PMC, or Militia Brotherhood, a sort of underground rebel group. Each offers different rewards, making it at least somewhat more than an aesthetic. These can be switched out at any time, so you don't have to worry too much about choosing between them. It's not the greatest feature in the world, but it's a neat little addition, I suppose. The idea of unlocking abilities, boosters, and so on is a really great idea, at least in respects to a single player mode. Being able to improve and upgrade your own custom Jaeger is a nice concept, and in some aspects it does work, but on a competitive level, it fails. This is to be expected, as putting free-to-play elements in a fighting game is setting yourself up for failure. These two design philosophies seem diametrically opposed. Fighting games are-or rather should be- skill-based rather than stat-based. A fighter is probably the farthest thing from a role-playing game, yet the trend of adding RPG elements into them persists. RPG Lite can work in a lot of games, especially when you apply it to single player against a scaling difficulty, but against real people in a competitive setting? No, it just won't work. It's not that every fighting game match has to be completely static, but Pacific Rim: The Video Game is part of the ongoing trend in the industry that forgoes skill for instant gratification. Instead of being good, the game makes you feel good. Having levelled up characters in a fighting game, with fully upgradable stats, simply doesn't work, to the point where I'm not even sure I'm playing a fighter anymore. Case in point, when I played online, I was devastated by another player with a fully levelled up DLC character (that I didn't have) who had more than three times the amount of health as me and was able to kill me in two-three hits. Before I could even land a second blow, his Slattern had knocked me down in one hit, before taking the rest of my health with a super. That's not right. When I play a fighting game and get my ass kicked, I want to hear "get better, scrub!", not "go grind some more, noob!". What's your opinion on the online mode? I like it. I don't like it. I haven't played it. Verdict I had a surprising amount of fun with this game, though I will admit that's because my expectations were low to begin with, and I'm such a huge fan of the source material. Is it a good fighting? Ultimately, no. It's a fun time for fans of the film, but for those looking for an intense or even competent fighter will probably be disappointed, especially if they go online. When it comes to online matchmaking, it's likely that very little skill will be involved. Rather, it's more about the strength of your mech/kaiju. Expect some ridiculously asymmetrical fights going in. If there's on thing that confused me the most about this game, it's the fact that it didn't go free-to-play, especially since it seems so fond of free-to-play elements. Characters in the game that I have to pay to actually play as? Check. Stat-driven fighting with the ability to buy your way to the top? Check. Limited selection of characters and stages, but plenty of DLC? Check. It has all the elements of a free-to-play fighter, making the ten dollar price team seem quite obnoxious. The DLC available includes characters, stage packs, and the ability to unlock the colour customisation options. Having so much of the game locked-off, and putting up a pay gate is fine for a free-to-play game to do. That's how they make money. However, it's a little ridiculous when, after buying two characters and a map pack, I've already spent more than the cost of the game itself. When you charge upfront for a somewhat limited and shallow gameplay experience, then ask for more money, you get a confusing freemium game that seems rather disingenuous in its intent. Pacific Rim: The Video Game is a slow-paced fighter in the spirit of the visual nature of the film. It’s slightly above average for most movie tie-ins, which isn't saying much, because most movie games are just abominable throwaways. Ten dollars isn't a huge asking price, but then again, with all of the downloadable content and freemium features, one has to wonder why this game didn't go free-to-play. For so little content, the relatively small price point seems a lot higher. If you’re unsure of whether or not to buy this game, you should probably ask yourself how much you love Pacific Rim. If you’re in love with the film as much as I am, then the license will be enough to carry the purchase. Fighting game fans looking for an intensely competitive game may be disappointed. Category:Blog posts